There are numerous applications for the cleaning of sensitive components, such as spacecraft components, bearings, and electronic equipment. Electronic or electrical components can become contaminated through usage, e.g., by smoke, dust, and other airborne contaminants, or by oils or lubricants. Oils are more difficult to displace than many other contaminants due to their lower surface tensions and higher viscosities, which make them difficult to remove with many solvents and/or detergents.
A number of alcohols, fluorinated alcohols and other halogenated compounds have been found to be effective as displacing agents for contaminants, particularly oily contaminants. For example, chlorinated hydrocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), such as Freons.TM., are commonly used. Concentrated corrosive acids or bases have also been used as cleaning agents. These reagents are often costly, hazardous to handle and present environmental and disposal problems.
Sonic cleaning has been used for decontaminating and/or disinfecting instruments used in medical, dental, surgical or food processing, for example. This method generally involves placing the instruments in an aqueous bath and treating them with ultrasonic energy. Treatment with ultrasonic energy has long been recognized to be lethal to microorganisms suspended in a liquid, as described, for example, by Boucher in U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,744 (1980). Ultrasonic energy has also been used for cleaning and sterilizing contact lenses (U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,824 Halleck (1983)), surgical instruments (U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,818, Young et al. (1980) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,750 (1984)) and even body parts, such as a doctor's hands (U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,687, Fishman (1969)).
After fluid processing, the components normally need to be dried. Evaporation of rinsing liquids is not desirable since it often leads to spotting or streaking. Even the evaporation of ultra high purity water can lead to problems when drying on the surfaces of some components. For example, such water can dissolve traces of silicon and silicon dioxide on semiconductor surfaces, and subsequent evaporation will leave residues of the solute material on the wafer surface.
A device known as a spin-rinser-drier is useful for drying objects without water evaporation. These devices utilize centrifugal force to "throw" the water off the surfaces of the object. This can cause breakage because of the mechanical stress placed on the object, particularly with larger or fragile objects. In addition, contamination control is problematic due to the mechanical complexity of the spin-rinser-drier. Since the objects conventionally travel through dry nitrogen at a high velocity, static electric charges can develop on the surface of the object. Oppositely charged airborne particles are then quickly drawn to the object's surface when the drier is opened, resulting in particulate contamination. Finally, it is difficult to avoid evaporation of water from the surface of the object during the spin cycle with the attendant disadvantages discussed above.
More recently, methods and devices have been developed for steam or chemical drying of sensitive objects. Chemical drying generally comprises two steps. First, the rinsing fluid is driven off and replaced by a non-aqueous drying fluid. Second, the non-aqueous drying fluid is evaporated using a pre-dried gas, such as nitrogen. A method for chemically drying semiconductor wafers using isopropanol is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,532, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,761.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process and apparatus which can be used for degreasing, cleaning and drying of sensitive components, particularly components having complex configurations.